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Movie – In a new take on a German film, No Manches Frida is a story about a con man, a group of at risk high school kids, and a teacher who needs help to reach them. Zequi just got out of prison for bank robbery. They never found the money he stole. Zequi hid it so well even he cannot get to it. Buried under a school gymnasium, Zequi needs to figure out how to retrieve the money, payoff an associate, and stay out of jail.

Zequi goes for a janitor position interview at the school and ends up with a teaching position. He is placed in charge of the most troublesome students on the campus. His job is to keep them in line and out of trouble. On his first day though, he runs screaming from them and vows never to return. Convinced to stay he comes prepared with some very unorthodox methods of keeping them inline. Paintballs, shaming, and a field trip to see what becomes of unruly high school students; the students begin to respect Zequi and believe they can succeed.

Set in Mexico, the movie is a feel good, help the misguided, romance story. At a time when all the stories coming out from there are about narco-traffickers, kidnapping, disappearances, and government corruption, this movie doesn’t really address any of those issues. Instead it demonstrates how anyone from any background can make a difference sharing their experiences. There is a lot of vulgar language in the movie and some questionable teaching methods. It is not for everyone. If you like over the top foreign comedies with profane language, them this is your type of movie. The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Book–Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since Abby’s E.T.-themed birthday in the fourth grade, where Gretchen was the only girl who showed up. Their friendship has been the most significant relationship in both girls’ lives, despite class differences between Abby’s and Gretchen’s families and the vagaries of school friendships. The book is set in Abby and Gretchen’s sophomore year, where they have climbed up to popularity at their selective high school. Trouble starts, though, at a house party at their friend’s lake house, where the girls decide to try LSD. Gretchen has a bad reaction and disappears into the nearby forest for the night. When she reappears, she is…different.

She ceases bathing, wears the same clothes everyday, scribbles listlessly in a notebook, and, most damningly, ignores her nightly telephone date with Abby. Naturally, when your friend takes a turn for the crazy, your first thought is not that she is possessed by a demon, but eventually it becomes clear that there is more wrong with Gretchen than one bad night can explain. I won’t spoil any of the gratuitous-but-fun demonic evil here, but all of the hallmarks of demonic possession are present and accounted for. Abby must decide whether saving Gretchen’s life is worth risking her own; not only her life, but her precarious standing as a poor scholarship student and all of the success that she has fought so hard for. My Best Friend’s Exorcism is part tongue-in-cheek love letter to the 1980s, part touching best friend story, and part gut-curdling horror, but all fun. Hendrix has mastered the tiny niche genre of injecting over-the-top horror into really unlikely and banal scenarios.